Hwy 19 New Prague Construction Project - Moves to a two-year project

In an effort to receive the most competitive bid prices from contractors, the City of New Prague and the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) modified the proposed Hwy 19 New Prague Main Street construction schedule. Instead of completing work in one construction season (2020), the project is now proposed to be completed in two construction seasons (2020-21).

Due to feedback received during the bidding process, there was a risk for high bids had it remained a one-year project. For that reason, the Main Street Project Team postponed the bid letting from March 6, 2020 to April 2, 2020 to allow the City of New Prague and MnDOT team to review the revised project specifics. Allowing for flexibility in construction over a two-year period should provide cost savings to the City of New Prague and MnDOT and reduce some of the impacts that an intense one-year project might have had on the community.

The contractor will have requirements for what work to complete in each construction season, but also have some flexibility to accelerate work as weather and schedule allow. Specifics of the project work such as phasing of the work will be available after April 20, once the contractor has been selected.

It’s anticipated that the first year of work in 2020 could include the west and/or east ends of the project, leaving the core downtown open and accessible to traffic. In that scenario, the second year of work in 2021 would focus on the core downtown segment.

A pre-construction open house was being planned for April, once a contract had been awarded, however with the recent COVID-19 situation, the project team will be looking at alternative means to get information out to the community about the planned schedule of work and about specifics in project phasing. In the meantime, feel free to visit the project website and to reach out to City Engineer, Chris Cavett with questions at 877.316.7636 (toll free) or ccavett@sehinc.com.

The Hwy 19 New Prague Main Street project includes a reconstruction of Hwy 19 through downtown New Prague from the intersection of Hwy 13/Hwy 21 to 7th Ave. SE. It also includes replacing aging and deteriorating underground infrastructure throughout the project corridor.